Chapter 2 - The Photograph That Rewrote The Past

I froze, strapped into the back seat thousands of feet above the city.

Victor Bellini had hijacked the extraction helicopter.

Marco sat rigidly in the passenger seat, Victor’s gun pressed firmly against his temple.

“The ring, Nurse,” Victor demanded over the headset, keeping his eyes on the instrument panel as he flew.

Leo clutched the heavy gold ring to his chest, terrified.

“Don’t give it to him,” Marco grunted. “It’s the key to the offshore accounts.”

Victor sneered and cocked the hammer of his pistol.

“Stop!” I yelled.

I looked at Leo. I nodded slowly.

With trembling hands, Leo held out the gold ring.

I took it and leaned forward, placing it into Victor’s outstretched hand.

Victor smiled, slipping the heavy gold onto his own pinky finger.

“Finally,” Victor breathed. “After thirty years, the Moretti empire belongs to the Bellinis.”

“You’re a monster,” I said. “You murdered your own daughter.”

“Anna was weak,” Victor replied casually. “She chose love over power. A fatal flaw.”

“Where are you taking us?” I asked, keeping my voice calm, slipping into the clinical detachment I used in the ER during mass traumas.

“To the bottom of Lake Michigan,” Victor stated matter-of-factly. “A tragic helicopter crash. The grieving grandfather survives, sadly losing the young heir and his heroic nurse.”

My heart hammered against my ribs.

I had to do something.

I still had my medical bag strapped across my chest.

I unzipped it slowly. Victor was distracted by the controls and the gun on Marco.

I reached inside. I bypassed the bandages, the stethoscope, the tape.

My fingers found the small, metal cylinder.

An EpiPen. Designed to deliver a massive jolt of epinephrine to restart a stopping heart.

If given to a healthy heart, especially an elderly one, it would cause immediate, catastrophic tachycardia. A massive heart attack.

I gripped it tightly.

“You won’t get away with this, Victor,” I said loudly, drawing his attention.

Victor glanced back at me in the rearview mirror. “I already have, my dear.”

I unbuckled my seatbelt.

In one fluid, violent motion, I lunged forward over the center console and slammed the EpiPen directly into the side of Victor’s neck.

I pressed the button.

Click.

The needle deployed, shooting a massive dose of pure adrenaline directly into his carotid artery.

Victor screamed, dropping the gun. His hands flew to his neck.

Marco instantly reacted. He grabbed the dropped gun and struck Victor across the jaw, knocking him sideways.

But Victor’s foot jammed against the rudder pedals as he convulsed.

The helicopter jerked violently, spiraling downward.

Alarms blared in the cockpit. Red lights flashed.

“Marco! Pull up!” I screamed, grabbing Leo and bracing for impact.

Marco wrestled with the controls, fighting the dead weight of the convulsing old man.

“Hold on!” Marco roared.

The helicopter leveled out just feet above the dark, freezing waters of Lake Michigan, skimming the surface before Marco forcefully pulled the joystick back, sending us climbing back into the sky.

I fell back into my seat, gasping for air.

I looked at the pilot’s seat.

Victor Bellini was slumped over the controls, his eyes wide and unseeing. The massive adrenaline spike had instantly triggered a fatal myocardial infarction.

His heart had literally exploded in his chest.

Marco shoved Victor’s body out of the pilot’s seat, taking full control of the helicopter.

He turned back to look at me. His face was pale, covered in sweat, but a fierce smile broke across his features.

“Remind me never to miss a doctor’s appointment with you, Ms. Reed.”

I let out a hysterical, breathless laugh and pulled Leo into my arms.

The boy was crying, but he was safe.

“Take us back, Marco,” I said. “Take us to Luca.”

An hour later, the helicopter touched down on the front lawn of the Moretti estate.

The police cruisers were gone.

Standing on the front steps, surrounded by his loyal men, was Luca. His lawyers had successfully shut down the corrupt arrest warrant the moment Dr. Harris woke up and confessed everything in the library.

When Luca saw us step out of the helicopter, his knees nearly buckled.

Leo ran across the lawn.

“Dad!”

Luca caught him, burying his face in the boy’s neck, weeping openly in front of all his men.

I walked slowly toward them.

Luca stood up, holding Leo in one arm. He looked at me, his dark eyes filled with absolute, overwhelming awe.

Marco walked up behind me and handed Luca the gold signet ring he had pulled off Victor’s dead hand.

“She saved us, Boss,” Marco said quietly. “All of us.”

Luca stepped toward me. He didn’t say thank you. Words were too small for what had happened tonight.

He reached out his free hand, pulled me flush against his chest, and kissed me.

It wasn’t a polite kiss. It was deep, desperate, and filled with the promise of a man who had finally found the light at the end of a twelve-year nightmare.

I kissed him back, wrapping my arms around his neck, smelling the smoke and the expensive cologne, finally feeling safe.

The Bellini bloodline of betrayal was over.

The secrets were dead.